


Kids in the Warpcore

by Aidaran



Series: Voyager's LightVerse [2]
Category: Star Trek, Star Trek: Voyager
Genre: AU, Children, Delta Flyer, Domestic Fluff, Ficlet, Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Funny, Gen, Ship shenanigans, borg children, long journey Voyager
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-11
Updated: 2019-02-11
Packaged: 2019-10-26 08:42:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 839
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17742671
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aidaran/pseuds/Aidaran
Summary: Naomi Wildman is bored. She roams the Voyager dragging the other children around with her.





	Kids in the Warpcore

“So… this bolt… goes… here”. Naomi’s brow is furrowed. She is very focused. She can do this.

Suddenly all the ship gets dark. Everybody screams, all combadges on engineering sound at the same time. Naomi feels her cheeks burn.

“Give me”. Icheb puts the bolt in another place, and Voyager comes alive again.

“So, wrong plug?”

“Yes”.

“Engineering is hard”. Naomi is laughing. She is precocious, and nobody will really blame a 9-year old for mistaking a plug anyway. She has grown from her early childhood shyness, and now that there are more and more children in the Voyager, she feels confident, knowing that she is growing up not being the only one born amongst the stars.

B’elanna gets in, with little Miral in her arms.

“What happened?”

“I am training Naomi”.

“You are teaching her how to cause blackouts?”

“No, I…”

“It’s a joke, Icheb. Calm down”. She puts Miral on the floor and inspects what they have been doing. “Here is the problem, you have these two wires mixed up. You interconnect them like this, and then, you put this here, and…”

Both kids are looking intently, trying to memorize everything. At this point, Voyager doesn’t resemble a federation ship anymore. Half of its tech comes from other civilizations, and Borg technology is deeply integrated into it. The only thing that still resembles the original ship is the outer hull. B’elanna feels like she has 3 kids: the warp core, Miral, and Tom.

“So, I think these young engineers should take a break. Why don’t you three go somewhere else and let me handle from here?”

Naomi smiles slyly.

“You need somebody to take care of Miral?”

“Oh, don’t be disrespectful, young lady. Now, yes, go away you three, and try not to pull out any wirings”.

Miral extends her hand and Naomi takes it, helping the 3-year old walk. Icheb looks at her with horror.

“I can’t believe you said that to the chief engineer!”

“Well, it was the truth!”

“Still! Protocol, chain of command, hierarchical structure, rank! Does any of those things mean anything for you?”

“Mmm... can’t say they do, I don’t really know some of those words”. Icheb looks at her with disbelief. “So! Where should we go? Play with the Borg kids?”

Half an hour later, Seven suggests, quite forcibly, that the six of them go somewhere else and let her work in peace. Mezoti stops trying, quite unsuccessfully, to run a diagnostic and looks at her.

“You want us to go away? We were trying to help, Seven”. All the children nod.

“I appreciate it, but probably your help will be more welcomed somewhere else. Why don’t you go to the kitchen and help Chell? Is almost lunchtime”.

They start walking to the door, but Naomi turns just before leaving.

“One day, you will ask us to come help you, Seven”. 

“Perhaps. But I hope that day is still far in the future”. She smiles lightly and Naomi laughs.

“Play kadis-kot later?”

“Certainly”.

The children run through the halls, with Icheb following them with a pained expression, until they arrive at the kitchen. Chell’s two kids are studying quietly, but when they see the other 6 kids enter, they raise their eyes. 

Mezoti goes around the counter and stands right next to Chell.

“We want to help cook!”

“Well, I could certainly use some extra hands”.

15 minutes, and 6 pounds of burned down onion later, Chell regrets accepting help. He can’t say the children aren’t eager to help, but probably they should go through some holographic training programs before being allowed anywhere near a stove again. He sighs, wondering if lunch will be on time now.

“Kids, not that I don’t... thank you for your help, but... why don’t you go play somewhere else? I can take it from here”.

Azan and Rebi look at each other.

“He doesn’t want us here”.

“No, he doesn’t”.

“He feels we are trouble”.

Chell feels a pang of guilt, but the smell of burned onion is stronger than his feelings.

“I think Tuvok may need some help, why don’t you go with him?”

The 8 children follow Tuvok through the ship for half an hour, until he makes a turn, enter the docking bay, and announces he is leaving them with Mr. Paris. The blonde pilot slides from below the new version of the Delta Flyer and looks at them, dumbfounded. 8 small faces look eagerly at him.

“So... why are you all here?”

“We want to help. We are bored”. Naomi says.

“It was not my idea, sir”. Icheb feels his cheeks burn, and wonders how did he end up with them instead of studying, as his original plan was.

“Well, I was about to try this piece of tech we acquired last week. I was also thinking about adding some side painting to make it look like a 20th-century sports car. Want to help me?”

2 hours later, the 9 kids are still playing with the new and improved Delta Flyer.


End file.
